news-engine

← hibernian

Josh Campbell in candid Rangers penalty confession

· Craig Swan · 2026-08-10 · nguồn gốc

Josh Campbell in candid Rangers penalty confession as he feared Hibs were the VAR offenders Campbell stepped up and netted on 11 minutes after Vanja Dragojevic was adjudged to have fouled Jason Kerr in the Rangers box at a corner Josh Campbell thought it was Rangers who were getting a penalty before being told he'd be taking his Ibrox spot-kick. But, after overcoming the confusion and a troublesome toe injury to score and help Hibs boot the Light Blues, he’s now set his sights on stamping on Shkendija. Sub Callum Wright hit the winner in injury-time in Govan, but it was Campbell’s composed first-half finish from 12 yards that laid the platform for David Gray ’s team to triumph. Hibs were awarded their penalty after Jason Kerr was pushed in the box by home defender Vanja Dragojevic at a corner. However, play had already gone down the other end before referee Don Robertson halted proceedings having been called to the VAR screen over a minute after the incident. That left Campbell unsure of what was actually happening as he admitted: “Not a clue. I thought we had given a penalty away, if I'm honest with you! “Then I was told that I was taking it and I was like: Alright, well, it must be our penalty. “So, no, called upon to take the penalty and put it to the back of the net. “But as I said, I had no idea whose penalty it was when he was looking at the screen until it was actually given to us. So, it was alright.” It turned out more than alright for Hibs as they won at Ibrox for a third successive season for the first time in club history and it was huge moment for Campbell. Having played just a few minutes as a sub against Shkendija, Ibrox was his first start of the season as he explained: “I had a bit of a toe niggle, had a bit of surgery on that and I had a little bit of a hamstring. So, that was my first minutes. “I think it was obvious because I was absolutely blowing out my a**e coming to the end! But no, I just need to gather up more minutes and build on it. “Someone stood on my toe and a bit of an ingrown toenail and it just led to one thing and another and it just got worse and worse. I had repeated surgeries last year to try and fix it, but I had to just get it completely fixed now. “Believe it or not, it was actually my own player Rocky [Bushiri] that stood on my toe. So it was quite sore that day that he done it! “Honestly, I can't recommend getting toe surgery. It's awful. It was a pain in the a**e for me over summer and then I came back, tried to get through it and I just couldn't do it. So I had to get surgery on the toe. “Then I came back from that and the hamstring went a little bit, but all fit now and ready to kick on.” The fact Wright got the Ibrox winner was fitting in that sense as Campbell added: “He had a little bit of a niggle as well when he first came in, so we've grew a little relationship together. “Lovely lad and he was quality on Thursday night [first leg against Shkendija] when he came on and he showed that again. “First and foremost, he's a good boy, which is what we look for for players in this club and he's got the quality to show on the pitch as he did. “Yeah, it [game] was pretty wild, to be honest with you. I think we rode our luck a little bit. Look, we know it's tough when you come to these places [Ibrox]. “You've got to dig in deep, big tackles from big players, your goalkeeper needs to have a good game, which he did, and then we know, if you put your foot on it, you can play at times and you can counter. “A lot of tired lads, but we hung in there and we got the winner at the end. It was a good performance. That's big confidence for us for Thursday.” Campbell’s reference was about now motoring into Macedonia defending a 2-1 lead and he said: “The aim for this club is to be in European football. We want to get to the group stages because we've never been there before. “This is where you work hard for the season before. You want to play Thursday, Sunday constantly. And as I said, there's no better game than Thursday night for us.”